29 December 2008

Addendum to Thoughts on AJS Conference

Although I had posted already some brief reflections on my attending the Association of Jewish Studies conference, I figured I would share a further few that were on my mind.
One of them is that, being a rabbinical student, people were curious as to what I was doing there (I got a couple of people ask me if I was delivering a paper (although the answer is no, it may be something for me to consider for the future (although someone said I may need to be enrolled in a graduate studies program, so we'll see where I end up - I may enroll in a graduate studies program), although it usually must be either someone with a PhD or ABD)). The answer, for me, is that this was a great opportunity to not only hear the newest papers in the field (okay, for me - I'm mostly interested in Talmud studies, but the other papers were also good to hear), some great ideas being tossed around, and getting to experience a high level of discourse, but also to get to meet the head scholars out there, to ask them questions in a relaxed and open atmosphere, and to get in contact with them to discuss matters further later (or to be made aware of certain significant articles, chapters, or books).
Also, in addition to being surprised at my being at an academic conference, this one was really my second one, having been to one before (although the AJS conference was much larger).
----------
As a continuation from my previous post, the only other blogging done about the conference has been done by Benzion Chinn at his Izgad blog, who followed the first two posts to which I linked in my previous posting about the conference with three further postings: Interreligious Hostility in Medieval and Early Modern Times Part I, Interreligious Hostility in Medieval and Early Modern Times Part II, and Jewish and Christian Learning During the High Middle Ages: Parallels and Points of Contact.

No comments: